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New Study Confirms Effectiveness of Hepatitis E Vaccine During Epidemic Outbreaks
- Doctors Without Borders and the South Sudanese Ministry of Health have developed a campaign aimed at halting the Hepatitis E outbreak at the Bentiu camp.
- Their vaccination campaign seeks to support vulnerable populations, including pregnant women and people with underlying health problems, who are at increased risk.
- Hepatitis E symptoms, including jaundice, fever, and fatigue, can be misattributed to other illnesses, and the disease is responsible for about 50,000 deaths yearly globally.
- The outbreak at Bentiu is an emergency situation caused by the camp’s unsanitary living conditions, which are particularly susceptible to seasonal flooding and waterborne diseases.
- The Hecolin vaccine was used in the Bentiu vaccination campaign. The vaccine has been used in clinical trials in China since it was licensed in 2011 but had not been tested for outbreak responses beyond clinical or travel medicine contexts.
- The study on the vaccine focused on its effectiveness across different populations and environmental conditions that differed from those in China.
- The results of the study suggest that two doses of the vaccine are effective. These findings are significant because typically, three doses of the vaccine, six months apart, are required, and the context in which the vaccine was deployed in Bentiu was more challenging than in clinical trials.
- The results of this study have significant implications for public health policy and the operational readiness of health institutions worldwide.
- The research partnership between Doctors Without Borders and the UNIGE-HUG Center illustrates a model for future collaborative efforts in tackling emerging viral diseases.
- The World Health Organization’s International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision established a hepatitis E vaccine stockpile for emergency response scenarios based in part on the results of this study.
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